Many people choose to leave money or other assets to charities when they die. Where a charity is particularly important to you, or where you feel your relatives are sufficiently well off, you may wish to leave most or all of your estate to charity.<\/p>\n
In many countries, including Scotland<\/a>, it’s not possible to do this, as set quotas must be reserved for certain relatives.<\/p>\n In England & Wales and Northern Ireland it is possible to leave your whole estate to a charity. However, you will need to make sure you provide for any close family and dependants that rely on you. If you don’t, and they bring a claim, a court can award them some of your estate if it decides it puts them in financial difficulty.<\/p>\n Make sure your family know your intentions in advance to avoid delays, legal costs or distress.<\/p>\n If there is any possibility that your will may be challenged, you should consult a professional advisor<\/a>, who can ensure you have done everything possible to prevent this eventuality.<\/p>\n The following four steps are also all advisable:<\/p>\n Your chosen charity might have been wound up, or merged with another one, by the time you die. To play it safe, you could name a second and perhaps a third as a back up. Alternatively your will advisor could add a clause into your will to direct the legacy to a similar organisation.<\/p>\n If you are leaving a large amount of money to charity, think about setting up a charitable trust in your will. An advantage of this is that you can simply indicate how you wish the funds to be used (for example, \u2018for medical research\u2019), but leave it to the trustees to decide over time which projects should be funded.<\/p>\n As mentioned above, if you decide to leave everything to charity you should speak to a qualified advisor<\/a>, who will help ensure all relevant issues have been taken into consideration.<\/p>\nAvoiding disputes with your family<\/h2>\n
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Plan for the long term: choose your charity with care<\/h2>\n
Get advice<\/h2>\n